Joining the club | ICAEW Economia Joining the club economia works better with JavaScript enabled. Your current browser is not capable of using this site without JavaScript. Please use an updated browser or enable JavaScript to continue. Life 3 Jan 2013 11:22am Joining the club Once the preserve of the aristocracy, and only the male ones at that, London’s members clubs are now open to most. From leather bound to business chic, Penelope Rance finds one that’s right for you White’s Founded 1693 Address 37 St James’s Street, St James’s Profile The oldest of London’s members clubs, this very British institution was in fact founded by an Italian immigrant, Francesco Bianco (Francis White), as a hot chocolate emporium. He flogged the exclusive beverage under the name Mrs White’s Chocolate Shop, but managed to transition from teashop to exclusive club despite the disapproval of the (understandably) paranoid monarch Charles II, who saw them as nests of dissent.

Moving to St James’s Street in 1778, it was at the heart of clubland, renowned for its gaming tables and betting book (which records Lord Alvanley’s famous wager on a raindrop race) and as the unofficial headquarters of the Tory party. Former members include Beau Brummell, Edward VII, Oswald Mosley and David Cameron – who famously resigned over the club’s refusal to admit women, despite having been a member for over 15 years. Entry £1,275, subs: £1,275 Membership requirements Being a man, ideally a Tory, and knowing people in high places at the club. Special because The history of the place. It might be stuffy and elitist, but it has always been that way. Founded 1836 Address 104-105, Pall Mall, St James’s Profile The palatial, Charles Barry-designed clubhouse is as impressive today as it was in 1841.

Although no longer associated with any party, the club was once entirely politically motivated, being made up of the supporters of the Great Reform Act of 1832 – among them Whig peers and radical MPs, effectively making this the headquarters of the Liberal Party. Since the 1920s, however, it has been a social affair, and stated membership requirements are “character, talent and achievement”. JM Barrie and Winston Churchill were members, as was HG Wells. It was also the first members club to accept women on equal terms. You can stay in its “chambers” overnight, but don’t think of working – business papers are not permitted in the public rooms. Play billiards instead. Entry £1,842, subs: £1,416 Membership requirements Must be proposed by two existing members. Special because It is where the wager was conceived and laid for travelling around the world in 80 days.

reformclub.com Founded 1887 Address 2 Audley Square, Mayfair Profile Founded as an antidote to the misogyny of the gentlemen’s clubs of the day, the University Women’s Club has survived through more incarnations and addresses than most, and still provides accommodation and a welcoming environment to graduate, professional and business women in London. Owned and managed by the members, it eschews the stuffy vibe of many clubs. The committee makes an effort to create reciprocal relationships with clubs all over the world. One of its boons is the discounts it offers for local spas and beauty salons. Entry £150, subs: £576 Membership requirements Being a woman. Proposal and seconding by current members, although exceptions are made. Special because It’s survived in the face of equality and political correctness. Or perhaps because of them. universitywomensclub.com Founded 1863 Address 40 Dover Street, Mayfair Profile Founded to “facilitate social intercourse” between those interested in art, literature or science, the Arts Club aimed high, and was rewarded with a membership that has included Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Franz Liszt and Auguste Rodin.

It’s a place for socialising and relaxing, rather than working, and networking in a louche, artistic way, and there’s a suitably large number of dining and drinking options. The afternoon tea is really rather special. As one might expect, there’s an impressive art collection, and as one might not, in an institution of such a venerable age, a pretty decent nightclub. Entry £2,000, subs: £1,500 Membership requirements A connection with the arts, literature or sciences. So pretty much anyone, as long as they are proposed and seconded by a member. Special because it values art over money – as long as you can afford to pay the subs. theartsclub.co.uk Founded 1972 Address 28 Berkeley Square, Mayfair Profile Home-from-home comfort, assuming your home is a 19th century gem with an impressive collection of contemporary art. A nice balance between the welcome of the original gentleman’s club and the needs of the modern businessperson, with the Club Room study offering a pleasant working environment. The membership is a mix of those from the property, art, fashion and finance worlds.

As you’d expect from the team that runs Michelin-starred restaurants The Greenhouse and Umu, the restaurant, bar and wine list are all excellent. Entry £250, subs: £1,000 (reduction for direct debit). Membership requirements Proposal by a member of the club and an interview with the membership department before applications are put before the club committee. Special because Once the residence of the chancellor of the exchequer, the Grade II Listed Georgian townhouse has one of the most exclusive addresses in town, overlooking the sweep of Berkeley Square. mortonsclub.com Founded 1985 Address 45 Dean Street, Soho Profile Created by a group of publishers who wanted an exclusive-yet-relaxed hangout a world away from the stuffy image of the gentleman’s club, not least because half of them were women. Run by the members for the members, its focus is on media and the arts, and it has one of the finest collections in London, sometimes donated by up and coming artists in lieu of subs. It looks a bit shabby, which helps the celebrities who flock there to relax into the stripy furniture.

With traditional British fare on the menu and a well-stocked bar, people come here to relax not to network. Known as the original contemporary members club, the waiting list is two years long, but it’s worth it. Entry £695, subs: £695 Membership requirements Media types, artists, musicians, mates of the founders and those not easily star-struck. Must be proposed and seconded by current members. Special because You could sip a whisky with Noel Gallaghe while Jools Holland tickles the ivories. thegrouchoclub.com Founded 1998 Address 20 Portman Square, Marylebone Profile Built for Elizabeth, Countess of Home in the late 18th century, the charm of Home House lies in its history as well as its reincarnation as a very modern members club. The three refurbished Georgian terraces are a triumph of historic grandeur and cutting-edge design. Focused on the social, it has a wealth of lounges, bars and dining rooms, all decorated in an opulent style designed to imply that membership makes you a bit special. The rooms and suites are seen as an essential rather than an afterthought, as it’s assumed you’ll be partying long and late.

The social calendar and number of linked societies are unrivalled, but don’t expect to get any work done. Entry £1,840, subs: £1,840 Membership requirements Subject to the decision of the committee and a waiting list. You can pay to be a ‘member in waiting’ and get to the top of the list. Special because A “Pleasure Palace” that will have you believing, if only for an evening, you’re a member of the Georgian aristocracy. homehouse.co.uk Founded 2008 Address 1 Alfred Place, West End Profile Created as a “business club” rather than a social environment, One Alfred Place is designed to make working comfortable. Members have access to the club’s communal areas, quiet zones for concentrated work, a restaurant and a bar. Private rooms can be booked for presentations, workshops and other events. The exclusive, spacious business environment is maintained by limiting the membership, which is made up of freelancers, corporate members, entrepreneurs and those who need extra space or a more luxurious office. Entry Subs: £1,560 for up to 120 visits per year.

Membership requirements Prospective members must have a legitimate business interest, and applications are reviewed monthly by the club committee. Special because Not pandering to the traditional selection criteria of social status or trade affiliation, it’s open to anyone looking for a place to do business in London. onealfredplace.co.uk Clubland: we're all members now - Telegraph Thinking Man Clubland: we're all members now David Cameron says traditional gentlemen's clubs are 'a thing of the past', yet business is thriving, as it is at less formal, female-friendly private members' clubs. It's boomtime for clubland, says Jake Wallis Simons The Groucho Club was set up as an antidote to traditional gentlemen's clubs Photo: Alamy Comments In the 1963 edition of Leather Armchairs: The Chivas Regal book of London Clubs , P.G. Wodehouse lamented that clubland was “crying for bread and at a loss to know where [its] next ten bob was coming from.” There followed a catalogue of London's clubs, presented in a spirit of moritori te selutant. Aut non.

I understand that a new and updated edition of Anthony Lejeune’s 1969 classic The Gentleman’s Clubs of London is in the pipeline, back due to popular demand. This reprint is the brainchild of author and journalist Tom Stacey, who is himself something of an institution in clubland. “Clubs are more popular than ever,” says Stacey. “There certainly seems to be something of a resurgence.” Lejeune defined a good club as "a refuge from the vulgarity of the outside world, a reassuringly fixed point, the echo of a civilised English way of living, a place where people still prefer a silver salt cellar that doesn't pour to a plastic one which does." It is also, he says, a place where "quiet conversations" happen, where senior government appointments are "pencilled in", and where members know not to butt in upon certain other members, because they “happen to be running the Secret Service”. Association with this type of establishment is politically toxic, and David Cameron – who resigned from White’s, clubland’s oldest and grandest institution, while he was leader of the opposition – knows it.

But although politicians have publicly condemned all-male clubs as “a thing of the past”, they are hugely over-subscribed. Surprisingly, the popularity of gentleman’s clubs may be due to the advent of private members’ clubs, anti-traditionalist establishments that emerged in the mid-Eighties (the most famous of which is probably the Groucho). These were a response to the perceived snobbiness of the old clubs, and chose to accept people not on the basis of their breeding but on the content of their character – or to put it more baldly, their “cool factor”. Most importantly, they accepted female members. Related Articles Never ask the internet about your personal habits 10 Oct 2013 These days, the well-connected man or woman will have a bewildering range of private members’ clubs from which to choose, and new ones are springing up all the time. Robin Birley’s 5 Hertford Street, for instance, which opened last year, spans five floors and includes a plush subterranean disco; an extensive restaurant and bar; a Mediterranean-style al fresco square, complete with outdoor wood fire; drawing rooms; a cinema; and a cigar shop.

There could be no more striking emblem of the rude health of clubland. (There are also several women-only clubs, such as the University Women’s Club , Grace Belgravia and the newly-opened Other Club. But that’s another story.) For the modern gentleman, private members’ clubs offer the opportunity to let off steam in the company of women in an exclusive environment on a Saturday night; Sunday lunch may find him returning to the all-male, traditional environment of his gentleman’s club. Many clubmen believe that without the pressure valve provided by private members’ clubs, the writing would have been on the oak-panelled wall. The best thing about clubland is undoubtedly its eccentricity. Pratt’s , for example – a top-drawer gentleman’s club located in a sort of cramped, stuffy, underground dungeon off St James’ Street – has room for only 14 to dine at once; members refer to every male member of the serving staff as “George”, and every female member as “Georgina”. And the other day in Home House, a vast and extravagant private member’s club on Portman Square, I met a designer of dildos encrusted with faux diamonds. “It’s my way of expressing myself,” she told me.

“You’d be surprised how popular they are.” This, reader, is the tip of the iceberg. Here, then, is a whistlestop tour through the throbbing heart of clubland. Choosing six of the best to review – three gentlemen’s clubs and three private members’ clubs – was an almost impossible task. There are, after all, hundreds of the things. Before you say it, if I have left out your club, I apologise. Bear in mind that I never do duels. Gentlemen’s clubs White’s, 37 St James’ Street, Piccadilly Membership fees: about £850 a year, but waived after fifty years Waiting list: years and years Women: barred from the premises, apart from the Queen The oldest, grandest and most aristocratic of London's gentlemen's clubs, White's was established in 1693 by an Italian by the name of Francesco Bianco. David Cameron’s late father, Ian, was chairman; Cameron himself is thought to be the only member ever to have left voluntarily. Prince Charles had his champagne-fuelled stag night here in 1981. So it goes.

Inside it is smart and surprisingly brightly-lit, with men reading newspapers in armchairs and a very small bar tended by a charming Filipino who proffers sausages from a silver dish alongside indiscrete stories about members. As I waited for my friend to arrive, I was regaled with a story about the late Lord King, who led British Airways in the Eighties and Nineties; apparently he arrived at the club one day with a stiff neck, and blamed it on “an overdose of Viagra the night before”. We drank champagne. These days, my friend told me as I made discreet notes on a sheet of White’s headed writing paper, the club is much less fun. "More young men are joining now," he said. "As a result, the place has become far more serious. People drink less. It's a bit sad. In the old days, for example, I remember having a cheerful, tipsy altercation with Sir David Stirling, who founded the SAS; we ended up rolling on the floor of the bar in a wrestle. I haven't seen good, schoolboy mischief like that for a long while." What had gone wrong? "Many of the younger members are burdened by careers," he explained.

"Gone are the days when men simply relied on the rent from a few villages in Lancashire." To become a member of White's, your proposer must write your name in a leather-bound Book. Thirty-five other members must sign to secure your place; those who oppose may scrawl "never." Savile Club, 69 Brook St, Mayfair Membership fees: "relatively reasonable" Waiting list: months Women: guests, not members This sumptuous gentlemen's club – which features in episodes of Jeeves And Wooster – has a reputation for being fuddy-duddy. But things are changing. Over brandy in the oak-lined bar, a couple of younger members told me that the basement has been renovated to include a snug with a PlayStation. I later saw it with my own eyes. It was rather cramped, and a feeling of melancholy hung in the air. But to the gentleman gamer? Heaven.The Savile membership list now boasts a new brace of young Turks. It also proudly hosts the Eccentrics Club, of which a chap called Imants von Wenden is the president.

Members of this club, he said, "should not believe themselves to be eccentric, yet be perceived by wider society to be so." Prince Charles and the Duke of Cambridge are honorary members, and the Duke Of Edinburgh is the patron; he was guest of honour at the Eccentrics’ last dinner. The Garrick, 15 Garrick St, Covent Garden Membership fees: “shouldn’t be a concern” Women: guests, not members This well-known theatrical and media club was greatly ennobled by AA Milne’s bequest, which funded a top-to-toe refurbishment and rejuvenation of the wine cellar, which is now magnificent. The Garrick does dinner well, and after dinner very well. You can adjourn behind a curtain after pudding and sip a whisky in an easy chair, while resting your feet on small stools provided for that purpose. The cigar terrace is very nice indeed late at night; a very good selection of them is available in a wooden box at the bar. Paxman was famously denied membership in 1993 (yet seemed to be having a very jolly time there the other day). Women are allowed to visit, but not join.

Dame Edna was in line to be the first woman at the club dining table, but was pipped to the post by Dame Antonia Fraser. Yet it is not women but the proliferating quantity of lawyers that creates the most anxiety. “I’d sooner allow women and ban lawyers,” one member confessed. Private member’s clubs Blacks, 67 Dean St, Soho Membership fees: the "entrepreneurially feckless" are welcomed Waiting list: months Women: yes, please Established 300 years after White’s, on the site where Samuel Johnson used to convene his famous literary society, Blacks is a rare thing: a genuinely bohemian London club. Like White’s, it was founded by an Italian, Giuseppe Marsoli. In fact, it was designed to be its nemesis. I sat with the legendary Italian founder in the dimly-lit downstairs bar, by a roaring fire, drinking the excellent house red (Aubert & Mascoli). When he first came to London, Marsoli told me, he was taken to White's and "thought it was a gay club" on account of the no-women policy.

Along with an out-of-work suspected murderer, he then founded a bête noir – Blacks – with an all-female committee. "I only f– women," Marsoli said by way of further explanation. "Unless it's very late at night." I later found myself sitting next to Keira Knightly. She had a couple of drinks, then went off for dinner quite early. I understand that she is not a member of the committee. The club, Marsoli told me, is so full of writers and artists that he has to go out of his way to attract a percentage of professionals. Media types abound. It also hosts the very distinguished Authors’ Club, and members can use the Groucho, which is over the road, when Blacks is closed for two weeks in the summer.

The Groucho, 45 Dean St, Soho Membership: £695 to join, £695 p/a Waiting list: months Women: obviously Set up in 1985 as an "antidote" to traditional gentlemen's clubs, and named after Groucho Marx (who once remarked that he’d never join a club that would accept the likes of him), the Groucho itself has now become part of the establishment, having been out-trendied by such new yuppie temples as Soho House. Whenever I’ve been there, the average age has seemed rather high; it is always, however, very busy. In the club's heyday, Keith Allen and friends would “snort cocaine openly”. One member fondly recounted a crazed game of pool with Kevin Spacey; another recalled Bill Clinton playing the piano in the bar. The well-known media entrepreneur Mark Burkowski, who has been a member for "about 3000 years," was nostalgic. "The worst excesses of bad and exotic behaviour that made it so spectacular have gone," he said. “But a new energy is growing, and it can still be electrifying. The other night Chris Evans was buying everyone champagne." Electrifying.

THE LEAGUE OF CLUB CHEFS WHITE’S CLUB White's is London's oldest gentleman's club, established at 4 Chesterfield Street in 1693 by Italian immigrant Francesco Bianco (AKA "Francis White"). Originally it was established to sell hot chocolate, a rare and expensive commodity at the time (and the source of it's original title of "Mrs.White's Chocolate House"). These "chocolate houses" were seen as... THE CITY UNIVERSITY CLUB The City University Club is set in the heart of the financial area of London, it was established in 1895 and since its foundation, it has operated from the top three floors of 5o Cornhill, in the original building of Prescott's Bank, a 1766 private bank now part of The Royal Bank of Scotland. It was originally founded strictly for graduates from Oxford...

The secret world of gentlemen's clubs | UK | News | Daily Express UK The secret world of gentlemen's clubs AN allegation about a club losing £500,000 through embezzlement of accounts sheds rare light on an often forgotten, and very British, institution By Simon Edge 23:11, Mon, Feb 24, 2014 In their heyday clubs were all-male bastions for the very wealthy. Pictured, Billy Zane in 'Titanic' [20TH CENTURY FOX] Not long ago a female friend was a guest at a wedding reception held at Brooks’s, the gentlemen’s club founded in the 18th century by the Earl of Strathmore, ancestor of the Queen Mother, and his aristocratic chums. It remains an all-male bastion where women can attend as guests but can’t be members. Normally, those ladies who do penetrate the club’s defences – via a side door, not the main entrance – are provided with lavatory facilities at the rear of the building. But on this occasion the women guests were invited to use a gents’ at the front.

Some of them were alarmed to see the father of the groom blundering into their toilet sanctum. Assuming he was un aware of the temporary change, they gently tried to usher him back out but he was having none of it. “I’ve been using this lavatory for 50 years,” he roared with the ferocity of PG Wodehouse’s irascible magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett. “And I’m not about to stop now.” The ladies could have screamed for help and had him ejected but mindful that the old chap was footing the day’s bill, they reasoned it was better to keep the peace. Thus Sir Watkyn (as we’ll call him) had his way, nature’s call was answered, and half a century of personal tradition went uninterrupted. That is pretty much the way things are meant to be in the genteel clubland of St James’s and Pall Mall. This world of gruff old coves snoozing in wing chairs after lunches of dreadful food and excellent claret is familiar to lesser mortals through Wodehouse’s sparkling comedies featuring aristocratic Bertie Wooster and his trusty butler Jeeves which we now enjoy on our screens as TV dramas.

These tales were mostly set between the wars, so you might think that the leather-upholstered watering holes they featured, where newspapers are ironed, coins are plunged into boiling water to disinfect them and the waiters are all called by the same name to avoid confusion, are a thing of that past. But the allegation that some ne’erdo-well in the finance department of The East India Club – once the haunt of Prince Albert, Lord Mountbatten and Lord Randolph Churchill – has transferred more than £500,000 from the club’s online bank account into his own is a reminder that, however archaic these places may seem, they are very much still with us. The oldest and most exclusive is White’s, established as a chocolate house in 1693 by Italian Francesco Bianco. He anglicised his name to Francis White and a century later the venue was the unofficial HQ of the Tory Party, vying with the Whigs’ Reform Club down the road. Regency dandy Beau Brummell helped seal the reputation of White’s for high-stakes gambling. In the early 1800s he won £20,000 at cards from another member in one evening.

It was also here that Lord Arlington bet £3,000 on which of two raindrops would reach the bottom of the club’s famous bow window first. Taking over the role previously played by coffee houses, the clubs tended to unite a group of “gentlemen” – we would nowadays call them the upper and upper-middle classes – with some aspect in common. Today the Athenaeum Club still has an intellectual reputation, while the Garrick has a theatrical and literary bent. Clubs were designed to be used as second homes in which members could relax, mix with friends, play games, get a meal and sometimes stay overnight. Boodle’s was named after its head waiter while Pratt’s takes its name from William Nathaniel Pratt, steward to the Duke of Beaufort. The Duke called in at Pratt’s Green Park townhouse with a group of friends one night and had such a good time he kept coming back. The clubs tend to charge fees of around £1,000 a year, although if you’re someone like David Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland, you can charge the taxpayer via House of Lords’ expenses (Lord Trimble paid the money back when the story came to light).

They also have a strict code of honour based on discretion. In 1965 the Duke of Argyll was made to resign from White’s after he wrote articles in the press about his wife Margaret (although his misdemeanour may have been a convenient excuse used by fellow members embarrassed by reports of a scandalous photograph of the duchess). An employee of The East India Club is alleged to have siphoned £500,000 into a personal account [REX] Clubland famously has its own word for the process whereby members decide they don’t like the cut of another fellow’s jib. Jeremy Paxman was “blackballed” from the Garrick on the grounds that he was “rather full of himself”. It has also emerged that the members of the Athenaeum were horrified when Jimmy Savile was elected, on the grounds that the tracksuit wearing DJ “would not be a natural habitué of a club that has counted Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Palmerston and Lord Curzon as members”. The only reason they didn’t veto him was because he was nominated by Cardinal Basil Hume, the Archbishop of Westminster, and Hume would have had to step down if his nominee was blackballed.

A crucial part of the traditional clubland ethos was also to provide the peace and quiet offered by exclusively male companionship. This has proved an embarrassment to politicians attempting to project themselves as modern figures: David Cameron quietly resigned from White’s, of which his father Ian was once chairman, because of its hostility to admitting women members. A long-standing ban on women as full members of the Carlton Club, the bastion of the Tory establishment, also proved embarrassing to the party’s leaders. An exception was made for Margaret Thatcher when she became Tory leader and she was the Carlton’s only full female member for three decades. The ban was abolished in 2008 and Daily Express columnist Ann Widdecombe became the first female full member under the new rules. But hard-core clubmen defend the all-male policy without embarrassment. Conservative grandee Sir Max Hastings wrote recently: “I have belonged to Brooks’s for more than 30 years. I do not merely like the place, I love it. As with so many men of my age and kind, it is a second home. I love the company of women but I would vote against admitting them because they would fundamentally change Brooks’s character.

It would become just another West End brasserie.” Although he insists that he is not a dogmatic social conservative, Hastings is swimming against the social tide on that one – and perhaps surprisingly, nobody seems to care that much. My female friend at that wedding where the host insisted on using the ladies’ loo thought it was all rather a hoot, taking the view that if it matters so much to the silly old codgers, they should be allowed to get on with it. Another way these institutions have defied the fl ow of history is in the sphere of communications. It has always been the hallmark of the smartest clubs that they don’t post their names outside – if you’re not posh enough to know where it is, you’re not posh enough to go. In the age of the internet, the mark of a really grand gentleman’s club is that it doesn’t have a website. And in an era where virtually no walk of life is immune from the mobile phone camera or the unguarded remark on Twitter, the code of clubland discretion remains impressively unbroken.

As The East India Club chairman wrote to members when informing them of the latest allegations: “I shall be grateful for the support and discretion of everyone in avoiding speculative discussion or comment on the matters, pending the conclusion of our investigations and the criminal proceedings.” It’s almost unbroken, anyway. I won’t tell you how I got my copy of that letter. If I did, a poor member might have to be chucked out. Most read in UK A Brief History of Casinos | National Casino Forum A Brief History of Casinos Home » A Brief History of Casinos A Brief History of Casinos Gaming Houses: 1652 – 2013 Gaming, the playing of games of chance with cards and dice for money, had moved away from solely being the preserve of those at the Royal Court to become a commercial activity. For the upper classes, Gaming Clubs were licensed by patents provided by the royal Groom Porter. These patents were only handed out after due consideration of the social standing of the operator and of his potential clientele. The gentleman’s clubs of the day, while offering food, wine, music and dancing also served the upper classes’ desire to gamble.

The main Clubs of the time were: ■ Whites – opened in 1652 by an Italian, Francesco Bianco, as a coffee shop. Reith (1999) states it opened in 1698, but this is probably due to the fact that by then it had gained a reputation as a sophisticated centre for gaming. It was to become the club of choice for members of the Tory party, ■ Almacks (which later changed its name to Brook’s) – opened in 1764 as a gaming establishment. Its clientele of Charles Fox, Horace Walpole and William Pitt, soon made it the club of choice for members of the Whig party, and ■ Crockfords – opened in 1827, became the most famous of all the clubs. Set up by William Crockford (born 1775), an experienced gambler, it boasted the Duke of Wellington as chairman of the management committee and the Earl of Sefton as a founding member. Their business strategy was to offer the best food and wine in the most luxurious surroundings available anywhere in London.

Membership was targeted at only those best known and highest born, 1,200 of whom willingly paid the huge sum of £25 per year for membership. Munting provides us with insight into the background as to why there was such a growth in these gentleman’s clubs: ‘Clubs and gaming houses were patronised by the social elite, politicians and Royalty. England was an increasingly rich society, though the riches were far from being shared. A prosperous agriculture, developing industry at home, and the exploitation of trade and colonies abroad added to the wealth of a good many well-to-do. ‘(Munting, 1996, p. 19) In the sixteenth and early seventeenth century we see a move from the countryside to London by the upper and emerging middle classes. Much of the production of wealth was still done outside of the capital but the spending of this wealth was to be done in London. This included gambling and the stock market, which originated in a City coffee house, very much like the first betting shops and gaming houses. The early nineteenth century also saw the emergence of domestic tourism. This was primarily driven by the Continental European customs of British royalty of the time, who visited spas and the seaside for health and relaxation purposes.

These included Bath, Cheltenham, Leamington, Tunbridge Wells and Brighton. All of these resorts had gaming houses. Bath became a social centre second only to London and the second biggest gambling centre in the country. Bath’s success as a centre for gambling was recognised in the anti-gambling legislation of the time: “The Act of 1739 even contained a clause peculiar to Bath, specifying that most of the £20 fine payable for playing or arranging illicit games, when played in Bath, should contribute to the hospital in that city. ‘(Munting, 1996, p.20) This Act was to ban the keeping of any place where games such as hearts, faro, basset and hazard were played. The following year the government added the banning of all dice games and in 1745 added roulette to the banned list. These prohibitions had little impact on the gentleman’s clubs who used the defence that all gaming which happened on the premises was purely of a private nature and so outside the law.

As the working classes were not fortunate enough to be able to pursue their gaming activities in the luxurious and safe-from-arrest surroundings of clubs they had to make do with what were commonly known as ‘copper hells’ – the rich gambling in ‘gold’ or ‘silver hells’. These were very different establishments altogether. Their illegality meant that they had to be hidden from the prying eyes of the constabulary. Many had elaborate entry systems of multiple doors and grills. Their link with illegality meant that they were often associated with other illegal activities such as unlicensed drinking and prostitution. By the early nineteenth century, British gambling could be characterised as: ■ stratified by class – generally the rich would play high-stake games of cards and dice in clubs, while the poor played low stake games in their hells. Betting on horses for the rich, was done at clubs or betting houses such as Tattersalls, the poor did so primarily at race meetings. Pubs were the main gambling dens of the poor, where they would gamble on pitch and toss or other such games and buy their fractions of lottery tickets.

The rich would frequent coffee-houses to gamble on the newly formed stock market and buy stocks in new companies trading abroad, ■ illegal for the poor, allowable for the rich – the Act of Henry VIII banning the lower classes from gambling except for at Christmas time was still law. The Acts of 1710-1745 were targeted at the poor through the high monetary limit they put on banning gambling debts, ■ prevalent – while there is no research data available on how prevalent gambling was at this time, gambling’s association in sport and social recreation, as evidenced above, indicate that it had a large part in the social fabric, and ■ commercialised – gambling had begun to take place in specific locations with commercial entities run for the purpose of providing gambling. While these seemed to have started as either coffee shops or pubs, they soon developed into gaming houses (later casinos) and betting houses (later shops). What was to change was the ‘house’ becoming a player, whereas previously these houses provided facilities, they now developed the games and wagers so that they took a percentage of the amount waged. ■ The most recent casino was opened by Aspers in Milton Keynes, September 2013.

Top 10 Places You Can’t Visit - YouTube Top 10 Places You Can’t Visit Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Sep 22, 2014 The world is full of secret and exclusive places that we either don’t know about, or simply couldn’t visit if we wanted to. This list takes a look at ten of the most significant places around the world that are closed to the general public or are virtually impossible for the general public to visit. 10. Mezhgorye Mezhgorye is a closed town in Russia which is believed to house people working on the highly secret Mount Yamantaw. The town was founded in 1979. Mount Yamantaw stands at 1,640 metres (5,381 ft) and is the highest mountain in the southern Urals. 9. Vatican Secret Archives This has been mentioned on a previous list – the archives are not secret despite their names. You can view any document you wish.

But you cannot enter the archive. You must submit your request for a document and it will be supplied to you. Despite the foolishness of the recent junk from Ron Howard and Dan Brown (Angels and Demons) the documents are all available and there are no copies of suppressed scientific theories or great works that were banned. 8. Club 33 Contrary to popular belief, Disneyland has a full liquor license which is used when the place closes down to the general public to accommodate private parties. But there is one place in Disneyland that is always open to sell booze: Club 33. Club 33 is a private club located in the heart of the New Orleans Square section of Disneyland. 7. Moscow Metro-2 Metro-2 in Moscow, Russia is a purported secret underground metro system which parallels the public Moscow Metro. The system was built supposedly during (or from) the time of Stalin and codenamed D-6 by the KGB. Russian journalists have reported that the existence of Metro-2 is neither confirmed nor denied by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) or the Moscow Metro administration. 6. White’s Gentlemen’s Club White’s is the most exclusive English gentlemen’s club.

It was founded in 1693 by Italian Francesco Bianco (Francis White) to sell the newly discovered hot chocolate but eventually became a typical (but extremely private) gentlemen’s club. The club is famous for its “betting book” in which members make bizarre gambles. 5. Area 51 Area 51 is a nickname for a military base that is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles (133 km) north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large secretive military airfield. The base’s primary purpose is to support development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. 4. Room 39 Room 39 or Bureau 39 is arguably one of the most secretive organizations in North Korea that seeks ways to obtain foreign currency for Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s Chairman of the National Defense Commission. Room 39 was established in the late 1970s. It has been described as the lynchpin of the North’s so-called “court economy” centered on the dynastic Kim family. It is unknown how the name originated. 3.

Ise Grand Shrine The Ise Grand Shrine in Japan (which is actually a series of over 100 shrines) is the most sacred shrine in Japan. It is dedicated to Amaterasu (the Sun goddess) and has been in existence since 4BC. This ranks very high on the list of places you will never go because the only person who can enter is the priest or priestess and he must be a member of the Japanese imperial family. 2. Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center This is a place that is not only closed to the public, but it is a place that the public hope to never have to enter! In most “end of the world” films we see these days, there is always a highly classified area where US government officials and a chosen few get to go in the hopes that they can escape the impending doom. The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is the real thing. 1. RAF Menwith Hill RAF Menwith Hill is a British military base with connections to the global ECHELON spy network. The site contains an extensive satellite ground station and is a communications intercept and missile warning site and has been described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world.

The site acts as a ground station for a number of satellites operated by the US National Reconnaissance Office, on behalf of the US National Security Agency, Thanks for Subscribing! :) Top 10 Places You Can’t Go Top ten Places You Can’t Go Top 10 Places You Can’t Visit 10 Places You Are Not Allowed to Visit Category Historical Hussies: Gentlemen's Clubs in Regency England From Ancient Rome to Victorian England, We Love History Monday, November 7, 2011 Gentlemen's Clubs in Regency England Every respectable Regency gentleman (and a few who weren’t exactly respectable) belonged to a gentleman’s club. Some of the more popular ones were White’s, Brooks’s, (yes that is the correct spelling and punctuation) and Boodle’s. All were very exclusive. When a member was accepted into the club, it was known as an “election.” If a gentlemen had been a member for 3 years, others would say “three years after his election into so and so.” All exclusive gentlemen's clubs in London used a method of voting for proposed new members whereby a system of back and white balls were deposited, in secret by each election committee member, into a special box.

A single black ball was sufficient to deny membership. Hence the term “blackballed.” By far the most revered (and oldest) of London's gentlemen's clubs during the Regency Era was White’s. It was founded as a chocolate shop in 1693 by an Italian, Francesco Bianco, who’d changed his name to Francis White. White’s was politically conservative, which means most of its members were Tory. Even today it’s still considered the most prestigious club. Originally, when White’s became a club, it was mostly a gambling hub, with members who frequently played high-stakes card games. Whist, faro, quinze and hazard were some of the most popular games played. With all the clubs, obsessive betting occurred with some frequency. The smallest difference of opinion invariably resulted in a wager and was duly recorded in a book--everything from how many birds will perch on that tree in the next hour to who is Lady B's new lover were fodder for the betting books. Brooks’s was basically liberal, which means a large Whig membership. For a while, the Prince of Wales favoured it. He changed his preference to White’s when they blackballed his close friend, Jack Payne.

As a gaming club in the eighteenth century, which is just before the Regency Era, it had been in Pall Mal. The stakes were high. It was customary for gamblers to play for 50 to 10,000 pounds! Charles Fox and his brothers reportedly lost many thousands of pounds in a single night. Hazard was their game of choice. With Boodle’s, I’ve seen so many different characterizations of this one that it’s hard to say, but it seems to have offered deeper gaming than the above two. Some sources say Boodles was the club for country squires and those who 'rode to hounds' in the fox hunts. It wasn’t tied to any political party, at least not during the Regency Era. Another was Watier’s which was a short-lived club started by the Prince of Wales's (or Prinny’s) chef. It appears to have specialized in fine food and very deep gaming. There were many, many more clubs, but the above four were the ones with space in St. James's Street and thus at the core of society.

There was the Beaf-steak (or Beefsteak) club, which had precisely thirty members and met once a week for a fine dinner. Their building was open to members for the usual purposes such as conversing with friends, reading the latest papers, gaming, etc. The Athenium Club focused on ancient Rome and Greece. I recall hearing that only Latin was spoken there which wouldn’t have been a problem for too many Regency gentlemen, since Latin was taught in every school. There were private gaming hells, which, since gaming was restricted to members and guests, qualify as clubs. Many clubs had bedrooms that members could use as a sort of hotel during a quick trip to town. My favorite was also the Four-Horse Club, also called the Four-in-Hand Club which, though originally a wild club of young men, had, by the early 1800s, become a respectable club for superb drivers. Great fodder for heroes, isn’t it? It was a small group with only somewhere between 30-40 members at its peak. They didn’t meet in any specific place.

It began to fade around 1815 and disbanded in 1820, was briefly revived in 1822 but finally ended. The members met at set intervals to drive coaches-and-four out to Chalk Hill and back. Hard-core Corinthians supposedly exercised with a very specific uniform, but they didn’t have a clubhouse where they met. The rest of the time, Corinthians used Jackson’s Salon or Manton’s as their daytime hangout and might spend an evening in Cribb’s Parlor, but all of these places were open to anyone so they hardly qualify as clubs. I have always heard that the Corinthians hung out at the gambling hells more than at the clubs. There was also the Alfred Club at 23 Albermarle Street. It began in 1808 and attracted writers and other men of letters. If I remember correctly, Byron was a member. It was a great success, and in 1855 it joined with the Oriental Club which was established in 1824 (just after the Regency Era) as a club for men who'd been "out East" in India and other areas. So, to which club does your Regency Hero belong?

Posted by Gentlemen’s clubs | Attingham Park Gentlemen’s clubs As part of our focus on the Inner Library on the masculine side of the house, we have been looking into how the male members of the upper class spent their time. The Regency bookcases in the Inner Library at Attingham Park. Image by Robert Thrift, 2008. Gentlemen’s clubs became popular in London in the 1700s due to the decline of the coffee house. Britain’s first coffee house opened in 1650 and was a place where high society gentlemen would meet for good conversation and drink the highly priced coffee and chocolate. But the gentleman’s club began to take over in the 1700s and provided an environment for the cream of male society to wine, dine and gamble freely. Club membership was a visible marker of one’s social identity. There were over 400 such establishments around London during the Regency period but they had strict membership limits and long waiting lists. As well as the opportunities to make connections and climb the social ladder, for most men, clubs provided a second home. At the clubs, they could relax, take their meals and stay overnight if required.

Part of the current display in the Inner Library at Attingham Park, Shropshire. Card games and large debts Games played at the clubs were Faro , Hazard , Whist and Macau these were played to the highest stakes. Some men built up large debts but were helped by other family members. For example, in the mid-1700s , Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland , father of Charles James Fox , had to pay off 11 million of his sons gambling debts. Although it wasn’t long before his son was back at the gaming table again. Gambling could ruin a man and his family. One such example is Sir John Bland, 6th Baronet . Bland was born in 1722 and died, unmarried, at the age of 33 in Calais. At the time when he inherited the baronetcy in 1743, the family estates included the entire city of Manchester and much of the surrounding countryside. Yet by the time he died, he had gambled away every single house and field and died intestate and penniless. The Drawing Room at Attingham Park, Shropshire. Card games would also be played by ladies during evening entertainments.

©National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel Attingham’s links to gentlemen’s clubs in the Georgian period The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Lords Berwick were all members of White’s gentleman’s club in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick was also a member of Brooks’s and Boodle’s clubs. We know that the he spent extravagantly, but did he lose money at the gambling table? We do not know for certain but his name does not feature in the list of bets in White’s famous betting book. Another member of White’s in the early 1800s was Ernest Brudenell-Bruce , the nephew of the 2nd and 3rd Lords Berwick. Portrait miniature, watercolour on ivory, Noel Hill, 1st Lord Berwick (1745-1789) by Jeremiah Meyer, RA (Tübigen 1735 – Kew 1789), circa 1768.

Attingham Park © National Trust / Claire Reeves Thomas Noel-Hill, 2nd Baron Berwick of Attingham, FSA (1770-1832) by George Romney (Dalton-in-Furness 1734 – Kendal 1802). Attingham Park © National Trust William Noel-Hill, 3rd Baron Berwick of Attingham, MP (1772-1842) attributed to George Sanders (Kinghorn, Fife 1774 – London 1846). ©NTPL/John Hammond Ernest Augustus Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 3rd Marquess of Ailesbury and 9th Earl of Cardigan (1811-1886) by John Hayter (London 1800 – 1891). Attingham Park © National Trust White’s club The oldest club in the world, White’s , opened its doors in 1693. Its founder was an Italian immigrant called Francesco Bianco but he opened the club under the pseudonym ‘Mrs. White’s Chocolate House’.

The club, located in Mayfair, burnt down in 1733 and moved to 37-38 St James’s Street. By 1783 it was the headquarters of the Tory Party. Membership to White’s was notoriously difficult. There needed to be a proposer and two seconders for the new member. Then the applicant’s name would be placed in the membership book to collect signatures until 35 names were gained to back up the proposed member. Then the new member would be balloted, one black ball would mean no admittance to the club and was known as having been ‘blackballed’. The club was split into two halves with an older men’s club and younger men’s club. Then in 1871, the two clubs merged. White’s famous betting book lists numerous bets from births, deaths and marriages, to wars and earthquakes. Lord Alvanley made his famous bet to a friend that one raindrop would beat another to the bottom pane of White’s famous bow window. Sadly it wasn’t recorded whether the bet was won or not. White’s most notable member was the iconic Regency figure, George Beau Brummell .

He became a member in 1789 but in 1816 Brummell fled to France to escape the debtors’ prison. His final wager was listed in White’s betting book in March 1815, and noted as ‘not Paid’ in January 1816. Brummell later died in 1840 in an asylum after suffering the effects of syphilis. White’s remains the most exclusive of all London clubs. The bar has not been shut for 200 years and even today, the club has a nine-year waiting list. Membership is still refused to women, although Queen Elizabeth II visited the club in 1991. It is interesting to imagine what kinds of bets are being placed there today! Boodle’s club Boodle’s was the true Englishman’s club. A club for country squires, it was the only establishment without scandal. The club was founded in 1762 by William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. The club was named after the head waiter, Edward Boodle, who was baptised in Oswestry, Shropshire, 1722.

Boodle’s is regarded as one of the most prestigious clubs in London. It counts many British aristocrats and MPs amongst its’s members today as it did in the 1800s. Dining at Boodle’s was all about etiquette, if members failed to wear the appropriate attire, they were required to take their meal in the formal room known as the ‘Dirty Room’. Boodle’s also is known for its famous orange fool dessert and its gin. Famous members included the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill . To see images of Boodle’s, please click here and search ‘Boodle’. Brooks’s club The ultra-exclusive Brooks’s was regarded as a Whig club, founded in 1764 by Messrs Boothby and James after they were blackballed from White’s. Its original location was number 6 Pall Mall. Later it moved to its present location in St James’s Street. Taking its name from the wine merchant and money lender, William Brooks, the club had around 550 members in the early 1800s. The games, Macau and Faro were indulged to such an extent that vast fortunes were lost.

Brooks’s club, for a while was favoured by the Prince Regent over White’s until he changed his preference after his friend, Jack Payne, was Blackballed. Another famous member included Charles James Fox who became a member at the age of 16. Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet (1838–1928) was a member. He was the grandfather of Sir George Trevelyan who was Warden of the Adult Education College at Attingham Park from 1948. To see two Thomas Rowlandson pictures of gaming at Brooks’s, please click here and here . Gambling for the poor In contrast, the gambling life of the poor was a far more different story. For the working class, gambling was illegal, a law which had been set by King Henry VIII. Gamblers from the working class met in the so called ‘copper gaming hells’. They betted with gold and silver ‘hells’ (a form of coin). These gambling hells were often operated by shady characters under the radar of the law. The hells had numerous entry systems and grills for swift entry and exits.

The gamblers would buy fractions of lottery tickets (not a full ticket) and also gambled on ratting , a grisly contest where bets were taken on how many rats would be killed. The notorious bull terrier, Billy, killed 100 rats in under 6 mins. Another of the blood sports was duck baiting where bets would be taken how long the duck could stay alive. Similarly, cockfighting took place, where bets were taken at 2 guineas a battle. There was also bare knuckle fighting the first bare knuckle champion was called James Figg who claimed the title in 1719. If caught gambling, the punishment was branding, public shaming, imprisonment and hanging. Gambling on the horses goes back as long as people have been able to ride. Race meetings attracted large and disorderly crowds. The working class also enjoyed attending these meetings to the disgust of the upper classes who thought the working classes were missing work and becoming idle. Gambling was seen as a heinous sin for the poor but not for the rich. Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Lord Berwick Thomas, 8th Lord Berwick was a member of some of the most prestigious London clubs and local associations.

We have gathered from his letters that he may have preferred the Paris equivalents more than their London counterparts. From the 1920s, he was a member of two clubs in Paris: The Travellers Club and The Jockey Club . In around 1923 he became a member of both the Carlton Club and St James’s Club in London. He was also a member of the Shrewsbury Hunt Club and was also involved with the Shropshire Society in London which was more of a forum for social gatherings. Thomas, 8th Lord Berwick, early 1900s. Attingham Collection. Share this:

Question: Which famous London club was founded by Italian Francesco Bianco?
Answer: WHITE'S